Bethune Cookman University President Trudie Kibbe and band director Donovan Wellsapologized to the family of deceased Florida A&M drum major Robert Champion for a comment made during the halftime show Saturday at the 32nd annual Florida Classic.

Legendary B-CU band announcer Horatio Walker concluded the Wildcats’ show by telling FAMU’s Marching 100 band to “do what you do best ‘roll over, crawl away and die.”

In an unfortunate, unrelated coincidence, 26-year-old FAMU drum major Robert Champion died shortly after his performance in the Florida Classic sparking some criticism of Walker’s earlier comments.

“Bethune-Cookman University President Trudie Kibbe Reed and the Marching Wildcats Band Director Donovan Wells, on behalf of the entire B-CU family, offer their sincerest condolences to Florida A&M University and the family of drum major, Mr. Robert Champion, for their tragic loss.

Additionally, President Reed, Mr. Wells and the B-CU family, regret the inappropriate comments regarding FAMU drum majors made over the public announcement system at the Florida Classic game. On behalf of B-CU, the President extends apologies to the FAMU family and takes full responsibility for this incident. While these comments were made during friendly competition and were not intended to be malicious, we recognize that these words were insensitive and hurtful.”

B-CU President Trudie Kibbe plans to propose to the Florida Classic Consortium a neutral screening of each team’s scripts before the game.

There’s been talk on the internet some of the traditional trash talking went too far in this year’s game on behalf of both band announcers, Walker and FAMU announcer Joe Bullard. Walker also made a sexual reference towards FAMU’s band telling the Marching 100 to ‘lay down, this won’t take long it’ll be a quickie.’ Bullard also retorted later on towards the Wildcats’ 14 karat Gold dancers that “the city of Daytona called and they’re out of weave.”

Trash talking aside, it is a very sensitive time for the Champion family who will be facing the Thanksgiving holiday season without their son.

It’s impressive that B-CU is taking the lead in amending what they deemed as inappropriate language towards the show but perhaps the Champion family should be allowed to weigh in on the matter before any decisions are made as the band was something their son dearly loved.

Bethune Cookman University football be in trouble before its first FCS playoff game next Saturday.

The Wildcats sports media relations department said Matt Johnson, voted the MEAC’s offensive player of the year, is undergoing evaluations and listed as a game time decision for their Dec. 4th playoff game against New Hampshire.

Matt Johnson was injured in the third quarter of the Florida Classic with a shoulder injury to his non throwing arm and the Wildcats, once leading, crumbled to Florida A&M and dropped its 10-game win streak.

I’m no medical expert, but my thought is he will play as the injury didn’t appear too serious. Should the BCU football advance past New Hampshire, they’ll have another major road block to hurdle. Next up? Delaware.

Delaware held the No. 1 for several weeks before dropping to No. 5 and are projected to compete in the championship game against Appalachian State. BCU is ranked No. 13.

There is a bigger reward on the line than “bragging rights” for the 31st annual Florida Classic Saturday.

Bethune Cookman, ranked No. 7 among Division I-AA by the Sports Network, needs a win against Florida A&M to get an automatic bid to the Football Championship Series. Should the team lose, and South Carolina State lose Saturday, then Florida A&M would earn the automatic bid to the playoffs.

With so much on the line, a stellar season, an intense rivalry and, of course, solid halftime entertainment, the Florida Classic could be looking at its first sellout crowd since 2006.

So far, over 50,000 tickets have been sold and Florida Citrus Sports executives say the sales are on pace to have 59,418 sold by Saturday, not including the walk-ups. A sellout crowd for this year’s game is 65,438 fans.

The game will be broadcast on ESPN Classic, 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

So will you be watching the game on television or attending the game in person?